(The following column by Andrew L. Warren appeared on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on November 24.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — There will be lots of talk in coming months about economic stimulus from the federal government. While Americans are ambivalent about such programs, there is one stimulus that generates multiple short-term and long-range benefits: construction of commuter rail systems.
Metropolitan commuter rail systems enhance national security by reducing oil imports, creating jobs, consuming domestic raw materials and reducing the environmental damage from private automobile use.
Commuter rail construction employs welders, electricians, steel workers and a wide variety of general construction jobs. The skills necessary to build new rail cars and locomotives are identical to those required by automakers.
The concrete ties, steel for rails and wheels, cars and locomotives, the copper wiring and roadbed materials are all produced in the United States and use American workers.
Imported oil is a menace to our national security. It exports billions of dollars annually that would better be spent at home. Electrified rail uses domestically produced coal for fuel. Even a well patronized diesel-powered commuter rail system is more fuel efficient than private cars and, therefore, reduces oil consumption.
Importing oil for automobiles makes us dependent on medieval sheiks, corrupt Nigerians and tin pot Latin dictators to get to work each day. Electric commuter rail depends on American coal miners working in American mines to get us to our jobs.
There are almost no American crew members on the giant tankers that deliver foreign oil across fragile seas to the United States. Now we learn that ragtag pirates in the failed state of Somalia are capable of hijacking entire oil tankers. Fuel for electrified rail, on the other hand, is delivered by U.S. railroads operated by American crews. So, not only do billions of dollars stay here in the United States, a “coal spill” does less environmental damage than a tanker oil spill and is easier to clean up with less residual effect.
Electrified rail centralizes production of pollutants where they are more efficiently monitored and reduced. Equivalent automobile transportation spreads more pollutants over a wider area and their emissions are more difficult to reduce.
Both diesel and electric rail produce less greenhouse gas — and fewer pollutants generally — per passenger mile than private automobiles.
Take a look at the land consumed by a single highway cloverleaf. Rail transportation moves far more passengers while consuming much less land than highways, taking less farmland out of production to help keep food prices down.
The price of gasoline is down and will stay there a while. But unless China, India and other growing Asian economies remain stagnant well into the future, we will see oil at $120 a barrel again — and our money will resume flowing to foreign producers. We can increase domestic oil production but it won’t ever be enough to significantly reduce our foreign consumption.
If we reduce dependence on foreign oil, we can reduce involvement in foreign countries and our military will be less exposed to combat. How much money — and, potentially, American blood — can be saved by reducing our dependence on Mideast oil and our involvement in oil producing countries?
Commuter rail isn’t perfect. The price tag seems high, and it is less convenient than private automobiles. Reducing dependence on foreign oil will be inconvenient in some ways — whatever alternative is chosen. Withdrawal from addiction is never easy.
We could give tax breaks or refunds to be spent on Chinese shoes, Thai clothes and Korean TVs. Or we can invest in a better, cleaner, more secure future and create American jobs at the same time. Washington should fund this national security program that stimulates our economy and protects our environment.
(Andrew L. Warren is a lawyer, former locomotive engineer and visiting associate professor of criminal justice at Western New Mexico University, where he also teaches railroad history. warrena1@wnmu.edu)